Mechanical freezing tray



Oct. 10, 1950 F. w. SAMPSON MECHANICAL FREEZING TRAY 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jam-1,1946

Oct. 10, 1950 F. w. SAMPSON MECHANICAL FREEZING my 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. '7',

INVENTOR FREOERIGK NSAMPSON wlkstssif" Patented Oct. 10, 1950 MECHANICAL FREEZING TRAY Frederick W. Sampson, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a

corporation of Delaware Application January 7, 1946, Serial No. 639,530

7 Claims.

This invention relates to mechanically-ejecting freezing trays suitable for use in household" refrigerators.

The general object of this invention is to pro-' vide improved mechanism for facilitating the mechanical loosening of the frozen ice blocks from the pan and grid assembly, or from the grid alone if the pan be first removed leaving the ice blocks still bonded to the grid.

Various arrangement of mechanism for forcibly loosening ice blocks from ice trays without melting them loose have heretofore been devised. For instance, Pat. No. 2,219,079, Reeves issued October 22, 1940, and Patent No. 2,305,687 Geyer et al., issued December 22, 1942, represent prior art along this line. The ice trays of the above patents are somewhat similar to the ice tray of this invention in that the cross walls are successively moved forward by an actuating hand lever to release the ice blocks two at a time. In the above patents the upper edges of the cross walls are not'always precisely located in their freezing position because nothing backs up these upper edges at the rear surfaces thereof.- In other words the upper edges of the cross walls are not forced to precisely predeterminedfreezing positions and hence their upper edges will not be positively located for the desired successive tilting of the cross walls (1) if any one cross wall becomes only slightly bent out of its flat plane or otherwise distorted'in use, or (2), if any one cross wallis prevented by rubbing against the center wall of the grid or side walls of the pan from coming to rest at its precise freezing position, or (3), if the ice on the front side of any cross wall freezes more rapidly than on its rear side and so pushes such cross wall out of its proper freezing position by expansion of the ice on freezing, or (4), if the restraining metal notches in the lower edge of the center wall become very slightly misshapen in use. or if these notches are not extremely accurately cut in the first place. Whenever for any reason the upperedge of any one cross wall is not very precisely located relative to the upper edges of all the remaining cross walls it is obvious that the cross walls may not be urged forward in precisely successive order and hence the ice-ejecting operation will be rendered far more difiicult.

Now an object of this invention is to overcome the above-mentioned difficulties by very precisely locating the upper edges of all the cross walls in correct freezing position and by provisions for insuring that during the ice-ejecting operation no force of the hand lever is expendedupon any cross wall t urge it forward prior to the time the cross wall immediately ahead of same has been loosened.

A more specific object is to provide such an ice tray mechanism wherein a force-multiplying means must initially expend all its force to move an endmost cross wall and to thereafter move subsequent cross walls only by using the actual movement of said endmost across wall to transmit force to said subsequent cross walls. Another object is to provide an arrangement wherein a lost-motion drag link connects one cross wall to the next succeeding cross wall to be moved so that said one cross wall must be moved sufficiently to take up the lost motion in said drag link before any moving force is applied to said succeeding cross wall.

Another object is to provide a mechanical ice tray grid wherein cross walls of water-repellant plastic material can be conveniently used due to the mechanical arrangement which eliminates possibility of excessive bearing pressures upon the cross walls.

Another feature of this invention is the design of the pivot end of the hand lever which permits a full working swing of degrees to be given the hand lever. This increased swing of the lever permits a greater multiplication of the force of the lever to move the cross walls longitudinally. Also the elimination of a positive stop for the hand lever before it swings at least 180 degrees reduces possibility of breakage of the lever by a careless operator.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein a preferred embodiment of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is aplan View of the grid and pan of this invention, all the parts being in freezing posi-' tion.

Fig. 2 is a section taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a partial view showing the hand lever raised sufiiciently to swing forward the endmost cross wall slightly and to take up the lost motion in the drag link which pulls the second cross wall forward.

Fi 4 shows the grid removed from the pan and with the grid parts in their positions at the end of the ice-loosening operation.

Fig. 5 is a section on line 55 of Fig. 4 but shows a face elevation of the cross wall.

Fig. 6 is a plan view of the first drag link which connects the endmost cross wall to the hand lever looking in the direction of arrow 6 in Fig. 3.

Fig. '7 is a plan view of one of the remaining drag links, which are all the same.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

Numeral H3 designates the container pan, which is preferably drawn in one piece from sheet aluminum or aluminum alloy and is preferably slightly flexible so that it may be more readily loosened from its frozen contents upon the iceejection operation described hereinafter. Pan Ill preferably has at least one end wall substantially inclined, as clearly shown in Fig. 2, for purposes hereinafter described.

The removable partitioning grid 2|) comprises a main wall 2|, which preferably but not necessarily extends longitudinally of the pan I ll, and a series of spaced cross walls 22 loosely mounted thereupon so that each is capable of an individual swinging movement relative to main wall 2| Main wall 2| has a series of open notches 23 extending upwardly thru its bottom edge thru which extend the continuous portions 24 of the cross walls 22. Each cross wall. 22 has an open slot 25 extending down from its upper edge to loosely receive the continuous portions of main wall 2| (see Fig. In the form illustrated in the drawings, the cross walls 22 are inclined rearwardly when in freezing position and the notches 23 are shaped accordingly to accommodate such inclined positions and to permit said cross walls to swing forward to a position preferably slightly past the vertical. Notches 23 are narrowest at the opposed metal points 26 and 27 which serve to substantially retain the bottom portions of cross walls 22 in place but permit a very slight bodily movement of the cross walls during the ice-ejection operation.

The drawings illustrate molded plastic cross walls 22which are much thicker at their central portions 28 than is necessary when sheet metal cross walls are used, and these molded cross walls taper outwardly in plan View to relatively thin outer lateral edges 29 (see Fig. 1). A face'view of the cross walls 22, as molded to shape, is shown in Fig. 5. The wide slots 3|! above the narrow slot each accommodates two overlapping drag links '46 as shown. The two opposed rounded lugs 3| provide a narrowed entrance to slot 3|) somewhat narrower than the neck portions 4| of the drag links 48. These parts are so dimensioned that after cross walls 22 are slipped 'up in their notches 23 on main wall 2| the drag links can be inserted into their slots 32 simply byturning them partially edgewise and passing them down between lugs 3 l to the flat position shown in Fig. 5. Thereafter these drag links 40 will retain the cross walls in assembled relation upon main wall 2| due to the lugs 3| being closer together than the width of neck portions M of drag links 4!).

The hand lever 5|) is pivoted by the stationary pin 5| to the upstanding projection 52 on main wall 2|. The hand lever has a central slot 53 therein which snugly receives said upstanding projection 52. Hand lever 59 also has two ad ditional slots 69 spaced from opposite sides of central slot 52, for receiving the two laterally spaced crank ends 6| of the crank link 62. The

stationary pivot pin 5| is short and does not extend laterally beyond the adjacent surfaces of the two slots 65 and, is retained against slipping out endwise by the two crank ends 6| which overlap the two ends of pin 5| at all times (see Figs. 1, 2, and 4). The two crank ends 6| of crank link fit 62 are pivoted to hand lever 5|) by two aligned crank pins 65 on opposite sides of projection 52 on main wall 2| (see Fig. 1) sothat said pins 65 may swing freely about stationary pivot pin 5| from their position shown in Fig. 2 to position shown in Fig. 4. By this arrangement it is seen that the eccentric spacing of crank pins 65 from pivot pin 5| need be only as great as the sum of the radii of pins 5| and 65, in other words, this arrangement permits a minimum eccentricity of crank pins and hence provides a very high multiplication of force to pull crank link 62 to the left when lever 50 is rotated as shown in Fig. 3.

The assembling of this grid may be done as follows. The cross walls 22 are first assembled upon main wall 2| so that the wide slot 36 in each cross wall 22 lies above the top edge of said main wall 2|. Then starting at the rear end (opposite the lever end) of the grid, the narrowed neck portions 4| of drag links 40 are successively inserted in slots 3|) by turning them partially edgewise and passing them down between the opposed lugs 3| to the flat position shown in the drawings (see especially Fig.5). The narrowed neck portion 42 of crank link 62 is similarly inserted in the. slot 3|lof the first cross wall 22, and the crank ends 6| of link 62 allowed to swing out of the way so that hand lever 50 can then be more readily assembled upon the grid. Then the central slot 53 of hand lever 50 is passed over the upstanding projection 52 of main wall 2| and its pivot pin 5| loosely inserted in place endwise thru the smallassembly hole 54 (see Fig. 1) in alignment with pin 5|. Thereafter the two crank ends 6| of link 62 are swung upwardly into the two slots 6|) in lever 5|) and the two crank pins finally inserted endwise from opposite sides of lever 5|). The two pins 65 may be retained against slipping-out endwise by a pressed fit or by staking the metal over their outer ends.-

Thus all the separate parts of the'grid are retained in assembled relationship by the final insertion of pins 65.

A variation in the above method of assembling this form of grid, when plastic cross walls are used, may be as follows. The plastic cross walls are originally molded each with theiropposed lugs 3| sufficiently spaced apart as to permit the narrow neck 12 of crank'link 62 and the narrow necks M of drag links 56 to pass down into their cooperating slots 30 without'turning sameedgewise as above described. Then after crank link 62 and all the drag links 40 have been inserted in place in flat overlapping position in their cooperating slots 30 the opposed lugs 3| are closed in to properly overlie said links by deforming the plastic material b means of a-hot iron pressed v downwardly upon the top edge of the slot 30 in each cross wall. This maybe very conveniently done for all the cross walls at one time simply by means of a fixture which holds'all the cross walls in verticalposition to align'all their slots 3|), and by using a hot iron bar of sufficient length to extend over all the alignedslots 36 and close in their upper edges all in the one deforming operation. This method of assembling is'especially convenient and simple when the cross walls are made of a plastic material which becomes readily deformable under moderate heat and pressure and retains-its deformed shape upon cooling. When this method of assembling the cross walls is used the final deformed shape of the cross walls may be substantially as shown in Fig. 5, however it is not necessary for the slots 30 therein to be deeper than is necessary to properly accommodate the relative movement of the links in these slots 30. When this method of assembling is used the hand lever 5!] may be assembled to the main wall 2! and to the crank link 62 (as described above) either before or after the hot iron deforming operation for closing in the top edges of all the slots 31] in the cross walls.

The operation of this ice tray may be as follows: When the hand lever 59 is swung to its position shown in Figs. 1 and 2, pins 65 move crank link 62 to its farthest position to the right (as viewed in Fig. 2) where shoulders l9 thereon engage and push the first cross wall 22 to its most rearwardly tilted position (hereinafter called its freezing position). When in this position the rear surface of said first cross wall has contacted shoulders H on the first drag link 48 and pushed same to its farthest position to the right. Shoulders 12 on said first drag link Mi have contacted the second cross wall 22 and pushed same to its most rearwardly tilted position. This second cross wall in turn has engaged shoulders H of the second drag link 48 and pushed same to its farthest position to the right, which in turn has pushed the third cross wall to its freezing position. Similarl all the remaining cross walls 22 have been pushed to their most rearwardly tilted positions by means of the shoulders H on each overlying end of each drag link and the shoulders H on each underlying end of each drag link, all as shown in Fig. 2 where all the parts are in freezing position. The ice has not been shown in the drawings, but when the pan has been filled with water to a level slightly below the top edges of pan [0 and solidly frozen all the grid parts below the water level will be solidly embedded in the ice.

When it is desired to remove the frozen ice blocks, the tray is removed from the freezing compartment and the hand lever 50 operated. The initial lifting movement of lever 50 will swing crank pins counterclockwise (as seen in Figs. 2 and 3) until shoulders engage the first cross wall, and thereafter begin to tilt this first cross wall forward. Only a very slight tilting movement thereof will loosen the first two ice blocks and cause them to cam upwardly on the inclined end walls l l of pan Iii. After this first cross wall has been tilted a small distance it will contact the forward shoulders ti on the first drag link 4t and forward to loosen the two ice blocks in front of same. Similarly, this second cross wall can exert no force upon the second drag link 40 to tilt the third cross wall forward until after suiiicient lost motion occurs to close up the gaps at shoulders 8| and 82. Similarly, the third cross wall can exert no force upon the next drag link All to tilt the fourth cross wall forward until sufiicient lost motion occurs to close the gaps at shoulders 8| and B2 of said next drag link, and so on for all the cross walls. ning with the first, can exert no force to tilt forward the next succeeding cross wall until it has been tilted forward sufficiently to close up the gaps at both shoulders 8| and 82 of its drag link M3. In other words, a predetermined lost motion always occurs between successive movements of the cross walls and all the cross walls will be tilted forward to loosen the ice blocks in front of same by swinging lever 5% thru degrees as shown in Fig. 4. Also it is clear that such predetermined Thus each cross wall 22, beginlost motion is independent of an possible distortion of the cross walls after a period of use, or any other inaccuracy in location of the cross walls in freezing position. This greatly facilitates the ice-ejection operation since it insures that the force of the hand lever is always applied to loosen successive pairs of ice blocks in precisely successive order.

If so desired, sheet metal cross walls may be used in place of the molded plastic cross walls illustrated in the drawings. Preferably all metal parts of the grid and pan which come in contact with the ice contents have their ice-contacting surfaces rendered water-repellant in a suitable presently known manner. These metal parts may be suitably made of anodized aluminum or aluminum alloy and their anodized surfaces treated with a hard wax or other water-repellant coating which will adhere strongly to such anodized surfaces. By using cross walls molded from a water-repellant plastic material, such as polystyrene, the ice-loosening operation of this device will still be easy after a long period of use, since there will be no problem of the waterrepellant properties of the cross walls failing after extended use.

While the embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed, constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, all coming within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A partitioning grid for a freezing tray, said grid comprising: a main partition wall, 'a series of partition cross walls spaced along the length of said main wall and loosely mounted thereupon so as to be capable of a relative movement in the direction of the length of said main wall, forcemultiplying means for moving one of said cross walls from its freezing position when solidly frozen in the ice to displace the ice blocks adjacent one surface thereof, and a separate individual link connecting said one cross wall and a second cross wall for moving said second cross wall only after some prior movement of said one cross wall.

2. A partitioning grid for a freezing tray, said grid comprising: a main partition wall, a series of partition cross walls spaced along the length of said main wall and loosely mounted thereupon so as to be capable of a relative movement, a force-multiplying means for moving one of said cross walls from its freezing position when em bedded in the frozen ice to loosen some of the ice blocks, and a lost-motion connection between said one cross wall and a second cross wall for moving said second cross wall to loosen additional ice blocks from the grid, said lost-motion connection being rendered operable to move said second cross wall only by a prior movement of said one cross wall.

39A partitioning grid for a freezing tray, said grid comprising: a main wall, a series of spaced cross walls mounted upon said main wall so as to be individually tiltable relative thereto, a forcemultiplying means for tilting one of said cross walls relative to said main wall when solidly frozen in the ice to loosen some of the ice blocks from the grid walls, and a series of lost-motion links successively connecting the remaining cross walls to said one cross wall and so arranged that said remaining cross walls are each initially moved one at a time in positive succession due to the lost motion in said connecting links.

4. A partitioning grid for a freezing tray, said grid comprising: a main wall, a series of spaced cross walls mounted upon said main Wall and loosely associated therewith and each capable of an individual movement longitudinally of said main wall, a hand lever arranged to move one endmost cross wall to displace the two endmost ice blocks adjacent thereto, and lost-motion connections connecting other cross walls in succession directly to said endmost cross wall and so arranged that said other cross walls are initially moved in positive succession by a further movement of said endmost cross Wall, said positive succession being independent of the exact freezing position of said other cross walls.

5. A partitioning grid for a freezing tray, said grid comprising: a base partitioning Wall, a series of spaced cross walls mounted upon said base wall and each capable of an individual movement longitudinally of said base wall, a forcemultiplying lever reacting upon said base wall and having a lost-motion connection to the firstmoved cross wall and arranged to move said first-moved cross wall longitudinally only after a predetermined movement of said lever from its freezing position, and means connecting the remaining cross walls to said first-moved cross wall and so arranged that said remaining cross walls are each initially moved longitudinally one at a time only after a predetermined movement of said first-moved cross wall from its freezing position.

6. A partitioning grid for a freezing tray, said grid comprising: a main partition wall, a series of partition cross walls spaced along the length of said'main wall and loosely mounted thereupon so that each is capable of an individual tilting movement, a force-multiplying means for tilting one of said cross walls relative to said main wall when solidly frozen in the ice to loosen some of the ice blocks from the grid walls, and a series of separate links each connecting adjacent pairs of said cross walls with a predetermined lost motion between each pair of cross walls and so arranged that the tilting movement itself of said one cross wall causes the remaining cross walls to be initially tilted in positive succession one after the other due to said lost motion to loosen other ice blocks, said links also serving to positively return said remaining cross walls to their initial freezing position upon the movement of said one cross wall toits initial freezing position.

7. A partitioning rid for a freezing tray, said grid comprising: a main partition Wall, a series of spaced cross walls intersecting said main wall and each loosely mounted thereupon and tiltable along the length of said main wall, a forcemultiplying means for first tilting an endmost cross wall toward the adjacent end of the grid to loosen the two ice blocks at that end of the grid,

and a movable separate link connecting said endmost cross wall to a second cross wall for tilting said second cross wall, the arrangement being such that said tiltin of said second cross wall is caused by a prior tilting movement of said endmost cross wall.

FREDERICK W. SAMPSON.

REFERENCES CITED the following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,305,687 Geyer et al. Dec. 22, 1942 2,386,064 Saler Oct. 2, 1945 2,403,846 Carney i July 9, 1945 

